Intel P35: Intel's Mainstream Chipset Grows Up
by Gary Key & Wesley Fink on May 21, 2007 3:45 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
P35 Express - June 4th
For today, the chipset that will most interest our readers is the P35 Express, which replaces the P965.
P35 will launch in both DDR3 and DDR2 versions, as you have already seen in DDR3 vs. DDR2 and Intel P35 Memory Performance: A Closer Look. No matter which memory version you chose the performance will be faster on P35 than on P965 or 975X. You will get the best memory performance from the new P35 chipset by running the processor bus at 1333 FSB. Intel has also improved their support for AMD/ATI CrossFire Graphics with the P35 chipset. Where the existing P965 struggled with a second x4 PCIe slot in CrossFire , P35 has official support for a pair of x8 PCI Express slots for the video cards and CrossFire if the manufacturer supports this setup. However, current P35 boards still utilize the x16/x4 design. With the new CrossFire internal connectors, running CrossFire on P35 is much simpler than CrossFire on P965.
| Intel P35/ICH9 Specifications | |||
| Chip | Mfg Process | Transistor Count | TDP |
| P35 | 90 nm | 45 Million | 16W |
| ICH9 | 130 nm | 4.6 Million | 4W |
The P35 chipset also features the new ICH9 series MCH, most likely the ICH9R on top P35 boards. Compared to P965 the ICH9 extends SATA to a total of six native SATA ports, expands USB 2.0 to twelve ports, and adds an eSATA port with port multiplier and port disable. Chipset power consumption for both the P35 and ICH9 are also very reasonable, with TDP for both chipsets rated at a total of 20 watts. Those who have complained about the hot-running NVIDIA chipsets will appreciate the lower power specification.
Intel also adds the Turbo Memory option, which can be a PCIe x1 card or NAND memory soldered on the motherboard. Desktop Turbo Memory is fully supported by Windows Vista but can only be activated in the P35 chipset by selecting AHCI support for the disk controllers. We will provide performance results of this feature in an upcoming storage article.
The Intel Matrix Storage is another area that has been improved on the ICH9 family. Intel claims that the new Matrix Storage Technology combined with optional Turbo Memory can enhance application loading, startup and speed up general usage by up to 34%. However, in preliminary testing we have only seen improvements of up 7% in certain scenarios.
You have already seen DDR3 and DDR2 memory test results with the ASUS P5K Deluxe (DDR2) and the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe (DDR3). We will take a closer look at the performance of these two P35 boards in this review. Performance results are also presented for the MSI P35 Platinum and Gigabyte P35-DQ6. With this broad cross-section of four P35 boards from Tier 1 manufacturers you should have the information you need to decide if P35 is your next motherboard.
P35 motherboard features and photos begin on p.6. P35 test results begin on p.10.
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Comdrpopnfresh - Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - link
The power could be attributed to the DDR3. With it not being so mature there may be a lot of signaling going on that isn't necessary. Also- with all the new technologies, these boards simply have more going on on them. With more transistors on a cpu its is expected they will use more power- more connections and circuits on a board would mean the same. Everything is running faster too. The power consumption doesn't make sense given the lack of matching real-world performance enhancements, but as the article makes good sense in pointing out, Bios are a big contributing factor here.TA152H - Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - link
Except they ran the power tests with DDR2 on P35 based machines as well, and they were higher than P965 with the same memory. So, obviously, that isn't the cause in this instance.Gary Key - Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - link
After speaking with the board manufacturers and Intel, our original thoughts (briefings/white paper review) were confirmed that the additional circuitry required on the P35 DDR3 boards and in the MCH result in the increased power consumption on the DDR3 platform compared to the DDR2 platform. This holds true for the P35 DDR2 boards when compared to the DDR2 P965, the additional DDR3 circuity/instruction set is still active even though it is not being used. This is why you will see the DDR2/DDR3 combo boards shortly. However, the BIOS engineers believe that can work a little magic with the SpeedStep and C1E wait states to reduce power consumption, however we are talking just a few watts at best. More on this subject in the roundup, at least we hope we will have more... ;)TA152H - Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - link
Gary,Thanks, it's useful to know. Are they going to shackle the x38 with DDR2 support too?
Just confirms my earlier opinion, they should have gotten rid of DDR2 support. Intel is an interesting company, they can come out with a great product like the Core 2, and then have some monkey decide to include DDR2 and DDR3 on the P35. You never know if they'll have a clue, or not. I guess it's a good thing they make turkeys like this and the P7, otherwise we wouldn't have AMD. Although AMD might be the cause of this.
The monkey that decided to do this probably thought, "Oh, look what we can do that AMD can't". It seems to me they did that with the P7, a technological marvel way beyond AMD's capability to design, thank goodness, and the groundbreaking Itanium. Except neither one worked great. AMD's pragmatism has paid off nicely, and even though they can't realistically support DDR2 and DDR3 on the same motherboard, I don't think they really care. Of course, I'm just guessing, when a company does something this stupid, it's always difficult to understand why they did it. It would have been so simple to just have DDR3 support for the P35, and let the P965 handle the DDR2 crowd. It's perfectly adequate.
Thanks again for the information. It's disappointing, but with Intel you get used to it. They can't do everything right after all, and still be Intel.
strikeback03 - Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - link
There might be a more practical reason, such as lack of production capability for DDR3 or HP and Dell threatening to use VIA chipsets instead of P35 in order to keep using DDR2 and keep their prices competitive. I doubt consumers would like their prices increasing by a few hundred dollars for no noticeable performance improvement. And if they only keep the computer 3 or 4 years they will probably spend less on energy than on that DDR3.Who knows about X38, I'd guess DDR2 support won't disappear until the chipset revision for Nehalem.
TA152H - Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - link
Well, I agree if P35 were the only choice from Intel, this would be the case, but again, would you buy VIA if you could get a P965? I wouldn't. If the P965 were a lousy, and seriously obsolete chipset, yes, sure, you'd have to come out with something that replaced it. But they could have easily validated it for FSB of 1333, and at the point the only thing really new in the P35 would be the DDR3 support. So, why would you need it?I was going to get the P35 rather than the x38 because I figure x38 will be even more of a power hog considering the, to me, useless features it has. I don't plan on getting two high-end video cards, and I don't think I will run anything that requires twice the performance of the current PCI-E, but if they drop the DDR2 support, it might the one to go after. If you ever look at an Athlon 64 CPU, you can see the memory controller is simply enormous, so dropping it on the x38 could be significant. With it being high end, they may decide DDR2 isn't a high end technology so they drop it. I hope so.
JarredWalton - Monday, May 21, 2007 - link
Could be the Vista factor? I dunno what else to think about the power numbers.XcomCheetah - Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - link
Could you do a little testing on it... why so high power numbers..Secondly if i remember correctly the power number difference between 680i and P965 chipsets was greater than 20W.. but in your current tests the difference is pretty small.? So any guess what has caused this positive change.?
Reference
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/...">http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/...
current power numbers on Anandtech
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...